The Medical Futures Lab is Now

Medicine is in the midst of a shift never before seen. Information and technology are advancing at rates faster than our ability to adapt. The physician of 2050 will think and work in a way that can only be imagined by the current generation. But we’re completely unprepared to deal with what lies ahead.

That’s because medicine has traditionally focused on what we currently understand. Our practices and workflows have been predicated on models shaped by the generation before us. But medical educators need to anticipate and study the issues evolving as medicine undergoes its most extreme transformation.

This past weekend at Stanford’s Medicine X, we launched The Medical Futures Lab, a collaborative space dedicated to rethinking medicine in the digital age. The MFL will bring the undergraduates of Rice University together with humanist scholars, computer scientists, designers, medical students and doctors from both University of Texas Health Science Center and Baylor College of Medicine. Our portfolio will include a suite of courses, design studios, media experiments, and continuing medical education courses. We’re looking to leverage our collective capabilities to identify core problems, create dialog, and fashion innovative solutions, all in a uniquely creative academic culture.

It’s a tall order. But someone’s gotta do it.

Right now we’re busy planning Millennial Medicine, an April 2013 meeting on the disruption of medical education. We’re bringing together some of the planet’s most unique anti-disciplinary thinkers to discuss what we need to do to bring medical education into the digital age. If you’re in medical education, miss it at your own peril. Millennial Medicine is generously supported by the Josiah Macy Jr Foundation and the Rice University Center for Humanities.

My partner-in-crime is Kirsten Ostherr. She’s an english professor with a penchant for media, imagery, health and really big ideas. You’ll find us together at Rice University in the spring of 2013 teaching Medicine in the Age of Networked Intelligence. We’ll be looking for your input as we build the curriculum. Stay tuned.

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Bryan Vartabedian, MD

Bryan Vartabedian is a pediatrician at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children's Hospital and one of health care’s influential voices on technology and medicine. 33 charts is a sandbox for his evolving ideas.